


Shout Out Loud

by houdini74



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Committed Relationship, Fluff and Humor, M/M, wedding vows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:57:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18365540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houdini74/pseuds/houdini74
Summary: David is having trouble writing his wedding vows, and everyone has lots of advice.





	Shout Out Loud

David stared at the blank page in frustration. Everything he’d tried to write either sounded forced or unnaturally sweet.

 _I’ve loved you since the day we met._ Not true, he thought, recalling how irritated he’d been when Patrick had gotten under his skin at their first meeting.

 _You’re simply the best._ No. He wanted it to sound natural instead of just repeating someone else’s words.

The idea of trying to articulate what he felt for Patrick seemed impossible. Thinking about it just brought a wave of emotions to the surface, all tangled together into a single, complicated feeling that was the tapestry of everything that Patrick meant to him. 

He tried to sort through the jumble of emotions, hoping something coherent would emerge. Joy. Love. Safety. Passion and desire. Comfort. Even relief. Maybe he could just read from the thesaurus when it was his turn, he thought with irritation. 

Probably the most on brand representation of their relationship would be for him to just stand at the altar and sob while Patrick smiled at him. But he thought that Patrick expected a bit more from him, not to mention all of the people who would be there to watch him stammer his way through this. 

He shuddered and absentmindedly twisted one of the rings on his left hand, the gold band pulling his attention and making him smile. After years of wearing silver, the gold color still came as a pleasant surprise every day. He felt a warm burst of happiness inside.

With a sigh, he shut the black notebook with a snap and went to find Stevie.

He found her behind the desk in the motel office reading her book. Tossing his notebook on to the counter, he began to pace back and forth.

“You look tense,” she observed. “There’s just a week to go, is the caterer giving you problems?”

“The caterer is fine.” he said shortly. “I just….I just...I don’t know what to say…”he trailed off, staring at her uncomfortably. “Why do we have to stand up in front of a bunch of people and tell each other how we feel? Isn’t that something we could just keep for ourselves?”

Stevie rolled her eyes at him. “Who would have predicted that you’d have trouble writing your vows and expressing your feelings?” She asked dryly. “Besides, I’m pretty sure that you were the one who wanted to plan a big wedding. You know that Patrick would be happy getting married at City Hall as long as he got to marry you.”

David grimaced. She was right, of course. He was the one who had wanted the formal wedding. But he’d been focused on finding the perfect food and decorations and had overlooked the fact that the wedding would include writing and then saying out loud how he felt about Patrick in front of a room full of people.

“You’re my best man...best woman...whatever. Doesn’t that mean that you’re supposed to help me?”

“If you want someone to help you with your feelings, you probably picked the wrong person. You know who is good at that stuff?”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Patrick. He’s great at this stuff. You should see if he’d be willing to take on the role of best man for you.”

“You’re very funny. And very helpful.”

Seeing the distressed look on his face, Stevie finally took pity on him.

“Maybe it doesn’t have to be that hard. Just tell him how you feel.”

“If I knew how to do that, I wouldn’t have this problem!” He was almost yelling as the stress and frustration of not being able to find the words for his vows overwhelmed him. As he was saying the last part of this, his dad came into the motel office.

“David. You’re not having problems with the caterer, I hope?”

“Oh my god. The caterer is fine. Colleen has catered hundreds of weddings, the food will be totally fine.”

“Then why are you yelling?” his dad asked.

“David’s having some trouble expressing his feelings,” Stevie replied, an ironic tone heavy in her voice. “Or least, he’s having trouble expressing positive feelings.”

“Oh, I see,” his dad replied. “Vows giving you trouble, are they? You know, when your mother and I got married, I found that some poetry was the perfect way to express what I wanted to say. Go with a classic. Your mother loved my recitation of Tennyson’s ‘She Walks in Beauty’.”

“Okay. Well, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be telling Patrick that he walks in beauty like the night. Besides, I want it to come from me. I just don’t know how to do that.”

“I could tell you how I feel about Patrick,” Stevie suggested with a grin. “I’m sure he’d appreciate that.” 

“Thank you both, this has been extremely helpful,” David replied as he picked up his notebook and turned to leave the motel office, closing the door sharply behind him.

While he’d been talking to Stevie and his dad, Alexis had returned to their room. She looked up from her laptop as he came in the door and threw himself onto the bed. 

“David! You and Patrick haven’t had a fight, have you? Because it’s much too late to get any of your deposits back.”

“We’re fine,” he said shortly, not really wanting any more help from his family. Unfortunately, Alexis wasn’t easily dissuaded.

“Well, something’s not fine! You’re all mopey and wilted. That’s definitely not how you should be a week before your wedding.”

David groaned, he knew that Alexis wouldn’t let it go until he told her what was bothering him.

“I haven’t written my vows yet,” he said.

“Oh my god, David! You know Patrick’s had his done for weeks.”

“How do you know...you know what, never mind.”

“You’re probably just overthinking things like usual. Writing vows is really easy, like that time when I had to write fake wedding vows for that Argentinian drug lord. I just described what he looked like and used a lot of adjectives.”

“Okay, I think these vows are supposed to be about how I feel, not about what Patrick looks like, so I’m not going to do that.”

“Fine, David. But don’t blame me when you’re standing at the altar with nothing to say.”

Rolling his eyes at her, he stared at the ceiling of the motel room. The trouble with spending all this time thinking about Patrick was it just reminded him that he’d much rather be with Patrick than write about him. He pulled on his shoes and headed out to Patrick’s apartment.

When he opened the door of the apartment Patrick was sitting on the sofa, surrounded by invoices from the store. He got up when David came in and kissed him hello. David wrapped his arms around Patrick’s neck as tightly as he could, burying his face in his shoulder. 

“You okay?” Patrick asked. “It’s not your mother, is it?” David sighed.

“No. It’s not the caterer or the photographer or my mother,” he stopped and hugged Patrick even more tightly as Patrick’s hands stroked up and down his back. “I just...I don’t know if I can do this.”

“David?” He could hear the fear in Patrick’s voice so he hurried to explain.

“I don’t know if I can write these vows!” He released Patrick so that he could pace around the kitchen. “Alexis says you’ve finished yours already and I haven’t even started!”

“I don’t know how to tell you what I feel! You’re the one who’s good at that. How do I say how you’ve changed my life? How I love it when you bring me coffee? How you make me laugh at myself when I’m being ridiculous? How happy I am, I didn’t know I could be this happy!” David was shouting and waving his arms as he walked back and forth. He saw that Patrick was smiling at him fondly so he stopped talking and crossed his arms defensively.

“What?!” he demanded.

Patrick stepped forward and slipped his arms around David’s waist. “Why don’t you just write those things down?” He suggested softly.

The tension left his body as a smile spread across his face. He loved how Patrick always made things so easy. He made a mental note to include that in his vows as well, but Patrick wasn’t finished speaking.

“Although I’m thinking that during the ceremony, it might be better if you didn’t shout your vows at me,” he said with a smirk. “It does take away from the nice things you’re saying.”


End file.
